I just like a busy brain, is that so wrong??

I’ve noticed a trend.  I like to learn some stuff.  I think about it for a good while, it becomes "a thing" and depending on how engaging I find it depends on how long I stay with it.

It all started with knitting.  And knitting continues.

Last spring and summer it was Spanish.  Come to find none of that made it to my long term memory.

I keep trying to force drawing and visual art making but so far it’s fleeting.

After summer vacation it became all about the Zumba and the food. I am still exercising three times a week and mostly not eating bad stuff. But  there are days when a protein cookie for breakfast, some quinoa and fresh vegetables for lunch, a protein shake for afternoon hunger and some light dinner (maybe a refried bean quesadilla) is acceptable.  I’m looking forward to the farmers market in the  summer and feel like I’ll know how to take advantage of it, but I’ve gotten out of the habit of thinking about food every breathing moment.  (Until I do again, of course.)

A good bit of my mental energy this year has been spent trying to keep high school music appreciation educational and interesting.  Just when I think there are no more ideas, one shows up.  Sometimes they like it, sometimes not but very little of it has felt like busy work.  (I finally broke down and gave a way too easy review sheet for those dingbats who have to take a final and don’t even try to do well-  getting them ready a little earlier this semester.)

Three summers ago I took a class sponsored by Smithsonian Folkways (it was that class that left me laughing about why dogs sniff each other’s butts- completely unrelated but still hilarious to me-it’s in a June archive somewhere). It’s really an online collection of folk music from around the world.  At the end of the week we had to write a lesson plan using the site.

Last week I assigned those kids five countries (which they had to show on a map) and they had to research the pop stars of that country.  It ended up being a pretty cool assignment.  I collected the names, YouTubed them, and they listened to (and informally) evaluated them while working on the next country.  Ethiopia has a pop star.  Mongolia has a favorite. I knew that was likely, but still.

My quarter of world music was curtailed due to the strike (thankfully so because I was struggling there) and it’s now time for American music beginning in the 1620's.  After some notes today we listened to the classic ballad Barbara Allen.  Here is tomorrow’s assignments: 

Go to this website

https://folkways.si.edu/search?query=Barbara+Allen

Listen to each 30 second sampling of Barbara Allen.  You don’t have to listen to duplicate performers (Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie) or ones that just say “various artists”

1. Write the name of the artist performing

2. Write down any changes in the lyrics (especially who, when and where) in the first verse.

3. List any additional instruments you hear. (or is it just voice?)

4. Describe what makes this version unique or anything else you notice    

     about it.

5. Rank it compared to the other versions you’ve heard.  

     4 is “this is the best one so far."  

     3 is “its not the best but I can tolerate it” 

     2 is “this makes me uncomfortable.” 

      1 is “ N.O. NO

By the time they finish they will notice how oral transmission affects folk songs and how a good song travels across time.  Also there are quite a few more modern versions of it on YouTube. (Simon and Garfunkel, Dolly Parton, EmmyLou Harris)

And that plan just bounced into my head while I was thinking about something else.

And the latest brain occupier has been two days of studying logic and logical reasoning.  Logic involves the logic games (Bill wear blue.  Tom wears green. Sue will only go out with someone wearing yellow on Fridays.  What is Martha wearing?). They made me crazy when I took the GRE.  They are a big part of the LSAT.  I love them.  Especially with strategies from Kaplan to solve them.  Last night I read and studied and got 2/5 on a practice test- really just guessing on some of them.  Tonight- same problem (too complicated to remember answers from last night.) I got 5/5 and could say exactly why it was right. So. Much. Fun.

I started the logical reasoning workbook at school during free time today.  An argument with premises and an analytical question to follow.  These are definitely more difficult for me what with all of the convoluted wording but I thought that about the games last night so there is hope.

I’ve been hanging out at the brain gas station saying “fill 'er up."

Logic games for $200 Alex

One of the LSAT prep books arrived today.  Greathusbandbob is under the weather so it was a great night to begin.  And when I came back from a pause, I found Liza had taken an interest.

Non sequiturs

This is an unknown internet dog but I saw it and believe it is all of truth and beauty.

I met a friend at Zumba.  We are at similar levels of fitness and had talked about moving to weights together in the summer.  Except then we friended on Facebook and she minimalized those kids.  And she shares fake Russian bot posts and likes the president. Every new friendship now requires a political litmus test because there are things I can not abide.

Today’s brush with stupid brain.... couldn’t think of the word minimalized.  Had to look up synonyms for diminished

When I turn 55 in three years I will have more than the required years to be eligible for full state retirement.  Yes.  I can retire in three years.  What the freakin' what?  I have a friend who's husband just finished law school after at least a 20 year career in local radio and sports broadcasting. When I found out I thought- wait- I want to do that.  If for no other reason than I love to go to school.  And then I could be a child advocate.  LSAT prep materials are in the mail.  It seems so much more interesting than subbing. (Or medical transcription which was my other idea before this one.)

And finally- I have a friend who recently ended a five year relationship after slowly coming to realize the incompatibility of her situation and I have a new app idea.  It’s called "meet my ex." Marcia leaves Greg.  Marcia wants to warn others about Greg’s batshit craziness.  She can’t use his name so under her name she includes necessary information.  Then all the new girlfriend to be has to do is learn the former girlfriends name.  There are still some kinks in it but I think it has potential (unless of course it’s already out there.)

There are no words

Those kids.  Those kids.  Those kids

Senator John Lewis marching with those kids as he has done so many times in the past.

In the same way a mere mention of Sandyhook brings tears to my eyes such is the case when these kids speak.

I know many members of the NRA.  But here is what I say.  There is an amendment that protects that which you feel you have a right to.  Why do you still insist on giving them money? It’s pretty hard to turn over an amendment I’m thinking.  Also.  I don’t assume that the people I know who are NRA members are racists.  I’d like to say mostly they're not. BUT. The NRA was founded as an offshoot of the KKK as a way to slide under the racist radar.  The very core of its mission began with that. Lynching having gone out of favor, let’s start a gun club.  Maybe people feel the need to be members for other reasons.  But know that it’s still the case.

I believe th NRA as an organization that manipulates legislation and pays for politicians is a treasonous terrorist group with just enough cover to trick naive citizens who happen to like to shoot guns for sport into believing that they need them.  Talk about collusion.

And then we were married for 14 years

And he was a conduit from my grandma saying she approves.

A close call.

Strike week was hard on routines.  It also wreaked havoc with sugar abstinence.  As in hello donuts, bagels and pizza, where have you been all my life.

The exercise train was easy to hop.  It feels too good not to.

The food recovery had some close calls.  It was a hungry Saturday morning. (The start of a scary novel.) I was out and about after having taken cousin shopping.  The options were a subway seafood wrap a super delicious treat from the pizza place or go home and try one of the meal replacement shakes.

I had finally decided to go home ant take my chances, knowing I was too lazy to go back out.  And I found the rice and beans leftovers.  A perfect lunch.

This weekends experiment was a replacement for chicken noodle soup.  Fried tofu and shells to fill it out.

Lessons learned- lesson number one-pick one spice and go with it.  I’m not clever enough to know how spices work in combination.  Lesson number two- don’t use so many noodles. Lesson three-don’t use parsley.  Lesson number four- don’t forget celery.  It was tasty but could have been  better.

The square knitting continues.  I feel like quitting and then I can’t think of what else I want to knit.

Regarding memory loss- kmkat wrote this comment on the previous post.  I thought it was brilliant.

I think of my brain as a wheel. When I can't think of a word or remember a name I just have to wait for the wheel to turn and bring the lost word back to the front. Kind of like when Arlo Guthrie says we have to wait for the song to come back around on the guitar in Alice's Restaurant.

Observations

Weather phenomena- today when I walked out of the building the sun was shining. And the snow was coming down like in a snow globe with almost zero visibility.  Is there such a thing as a "snowbow?"

Food phenomena- roasted cabbage with lots of black pepper almost tastes like egg noodles.  I love it.

Men and women-today greathusbandbob was serving as minority election inspector which means he’s one of the guys that does important things like read ballot numbers when people are voting.  When I walked in and gave them my name, all of them groaned, laughed and then said “you poor poor woman.” Which I totally get. BUT I can tell you that if the tables were turned and I was for whatever reason in a similar situation, he would have a cow and then that cow would have a cow.  Men are dumb.  You heard it here first.

High school kids.  When they are acting jerky it’s much harder not to take it personally. It’s easy peasy with the little ones. Ugh. I will have higher expectations next year and won’t smile until November.  I know they think I’m a pushover because I feed them. And laugh when they are funny.

The dog.  She is not a dog that likes to be petted.  She’s always been that way. She'll snuggle against you but she only just tolerates petting. I took some time last week to read her body language when I was trying to pet her.  It was so obvious once I started looking. Then I think but how will she know I adore her.  And then I watched her some more and realized her favorite thing to do in the world is play chase right when I get home.  She brings her toy with an impish  grin and then runs.  The game involves going from one end of the hallway to the other and occasionally throwing the toy (when I can get it)  I am adapting.

Fear and the introvert.  A new kindergarten aide invited me to join her for a trip to the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens on Easter.  She already knows I’m not very Jesus-y.  She isn’t either and her husband has to work that day so I said o.k.  Except come to find ever since greathusbandbob was sick I haven’t wanted to wander too far from home- more specifically- him.  I’ve wanted to go there forever, we usually avoid major holidays with an afternoon at the casino (which GHB will likely do with or without me.) and it’s a new and quirky friend and another chance for me to say in my head "she likes me, she really likes me."  There is just a part of me that is struggling to go back to normal.  Now that I see it for what it is (unlike when I didn’t go to New York last month) I think I am better equipped to manage but there was a feeling I wasn’t expecting.

The vice-president.  When I hear him talking about Christianity (some interview this week) I can’t help but imagine that he’s talking about elves and gnomes and hobbits and fairies and leprechauns.  It’s not when any old person talks about it (well maybe a little) but mostly it’s really bad when it’s him.  Mike Pence makes me an atheist (botanical gardens here I come)

And finally as I proofread this post, I realize it’s relatively concise and to the point in the observations.  Except it took more than an hour to write it because I kept forgetting ideas and words.  In fact I wrote this below just to remember this part:

Forgetting words

I’m certain it’s hormonal. I just can’t believe how inarticulate and cloudy minded I’ve felt.  I don’t do the "senior moment" excuse (there’s always someone older than me around anyway). I don’t get mad and try to fight it.  I’m certain that makes it worse,  I try to just watch my brain go by and tell myself that whatever it was will come back in a little bit.  Also this afternoon in my head I heard myself sneering "I will cut you" to adults that were driving me crazy. I will not really do that and I don’t really want to but the ferocity with which these feelings arise is also startling.

At least it didn’t snow... oh wait.

We went back to school on Thursday.  The kids had an Arctic Day(teachers report-kids don’t) on Friday.  I took a day.  I can only spend so much time looking busy.

I like chopping vegetables with a sharp knife.  Who knew?  I like it so much that I didn’t even take a picture of the final product.

The ingredients were this from an amazon prime video cooking recipe.

It was for vegan Shepard's pie.  I doubled the recipe but ran a little short on the potatoes.  I’ll know for next time.  Also on this week's menu is roasted cabbage slices over egg noodles.

There’s been a good bit of cheating going on.  A meal at red lobster (I did order broiled and grilled things but went to town on the biscuits,) this was followed by a trip to the Cracker Barrel candy store with the cousin.  Later that night a DQ banana split at greathusbandbob's request.  He took charge of getting cousin's roof fixed, I could not deny him.

On the up side, I haven’t missed any Zumba- and visited my original Zumba tribe on Thursday.  I love them and I love cracking them up which mostly I do by existing.  I finally have a friend friend from the gym Zumba.  The next goal for me is to start working with weights.  That will happen this summer and she and I will be workout partners.

Tomorrow the 4th and 5th grade girls start the Girls On The Run program.  My counselor friend and I will be joining and hopefully will be able to run in a 5k in May.  We'll just see how that works.

I’m still knitting squares in original Star Trek shirt colors.  I’ve blocked some and learned that acrylic melts.  There’s no real plan but I’ll keep making squares until I run out of yarn and see what happens next.

Still walking

Except two days were spent at the state capitol.  Some photo ops.  The large crowd outside was from a rally on the Capitol steps.

Sunny Monday in Charleston

This picture doesn’t do the crowd justice.

The first grade teacher and I hanging out on the capitol steps yesterday.

(You can always count on your best girl school pal to make sure

you share a good photo.)

Let the kids carry the signs...  

It’s been seven days.  The 20 republicans in the state senate are the ones holding the voting power.  They are tabling the vote to vote every time with various excuses.  The money the governor added to the revenue budget isn’t there is one.  A vindictive senate chair says "well if it’s about insurance and not the raise, we'll lower the % of the raise (5-2%) and put the imaginary money into the insurance fund."  The governor walked into a town hall held at a high school saying "you’re not going to shoot me, are you?"  At the next town hall he referred to all of the striking employees as rednecks.

There have been plenty of great signs.  My red 55United t-shirt feels like it’s become a uniform.  After 2 trips to the capitol in one week I gave myself the day off.  Today I sent an email to our superintendent thanking him for his support.  A nearby county canceling announcement read "wetzel county schools will be closed tomorrow and let’s just say it’s not due to weather."

It feels futile to be shouting in front of the doors to the state government as they are clearly working on their own agenda. The first day felt inspiring.  The second day was discouraging and weird.  Like you don’t want to get too attached to the shouts because it’s likely not going to end well.

It’s one of those times where you don’t know what’s going to happen and checking Facebook every 5 minutes doesn’t tell you any sooner.